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Impact of air-sea drag coefficient for latent heat flux on large scale climate in coupled and atmosphere stand-alone simulations

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Abstract

The turbulent fluxes across the ocean/atmosphere interface represent one of the principal driving forces of the global atmospheric and oceanic circulation. Despite decades of effort and improvements, representation of these fluxes still presents a challenge due to the small-scale acting turbulent processes compared to the resolved scales of the models. Beyond this subgrid parameterization issue, a comprehensive understanding of the impact of air-sea interactions on the climate system is still lacking. In this paper we investigates the large-scale impacts of the transfer coefficient used to compute turbulent heat fluxes with the IPSL-CM4 climate model in which the surface bulk formula is modified. Analyzing both atmosphere and coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation model (AGCM, OAGCM) simulations allows us to study the direct effect and the mechanisms of adjustment to this modification. We focus on the representation of latent heat flux in the tropics. We show that the heat transfer coefficients are highly similar for a given parameterization between AGCM and OAGCM simulations. Although the same areas are impacted in both kind of simulations, the differences in surface heat fluxes are substantial. A regional modification of heat transfer coefficient has more impact than uniform modification in AGCM simulations while in OAGCM simulations, the opposite is observed. By studying the global energetics and the atmospheric circulation response to the modification, we highlight the role of the ocean in dampening a large part of the disturbance. Modification of the heat exchange coefficient modifies the way the coupled system works due to the link between atmospheric circulation and SST, and the different feedbacks between ocean and atmosphere. The adjustment that takes place implies a balance of net incoming solar radiation that is the same in all simulations. As there is no change in model physics other than drag coefficient, we obtain similar latent heat flux between coupled simulations with different atmospheric circulations. Finally, we analyze the impact of model tuning and show that it can offset part of the feedbacks.

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Acknowledgements

This manuscript is a contribution to the ANR COCOA project (ANR-16-CE01-0007). Computing time was provided by GENCI (gen 2211) on the CURIE CCRT super computer using model. Computing and analysis tools are developed by the IPSL IGCM group. The simulations were performed as part of the DECLIC project (GIS climat DECLIC project). The lead author is supported by a CFR PhD grant of the CEA (Commissariat à l’Enérgie Atomique et aux énergies alternatives).

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  1. Luc Gential

    Present address: Weathernews France SAS, 79 rue du Faubourg Poissonnière, 75009, Paris, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    Olivier Torres, Pascale Braconnot, Olivier Marti & Luc Gential

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  1. Olivier Torres
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Correspondence to Olivier Torres.

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Torres, O., Braconnot, P., Marti, O. et al. Impact of air-sea drag coefficient for latent heat flux on large scale climate in coupled and atmosphere stand-alone simulations. Clim Dyn 52, 2125–2144 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-018-4236-x

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